Award Shows & Ceremonies are a dynamic way of rewarding your students, employees, clients and partners who are active in growing your business. Now, more than ever, it is essential that we continue to recognize the achievements around us at Company Recognition events, Sales Kickoffs, Fundraisers, & Galas. Recognition is a powerful way to energize your company or cause in a virtual or hybrid setting.
But it doesn’t stop there, not only does it help society and our industries, it helps us as people. Put simply, it feels good to be recognized for our hard work and contributions. It helps us stay positive, engaged and motivated!
The Value of Awards Ceremonies
Running an IRL or Hybrid event is not only possible, it can also be lucrative. Just think of the typical event planning overhead that you’ll significantly reduce if not banish altogether.
Without the expensive overhead, you can consider lowering the entry or ticket cost, and thereby, increase participation from program participants (entrants, judges and program organizers) and possible sponsors. Also consider adding a Virtual Happy Hour to your Virtual event to create excitement and maximize attendance. It might also be easier for guest speakers or presenters to accept your gala invitation. Now, they can avoid the inconveniences of travel and accommodation.
Tools of the Virtual trade
So now that we know there are real benefits to moving your awards gala to a Virtual event production, how will you actually do it? Sure, you know a little about working remotely. By now, you’ve probably attended a virtual meeting or video chat and you know how to work from home. But, an actual physical event? Yes, you can do it! There are many phases and steps, including the right planning which is the key ingredient. The secondary steps are selection of an effective and proven technology platform to help you succeed.
Most of your planning will involve choosing the right pre-production assistance, media asset creation, speaker and host rehearsals and hosting on right virtual platform that best fits your unique virtual event needs. We can produce your entire event with our successful formula we apply to our pre-production, day of services and post-event system.
Social media live-streaming
Live-streaming an event on social media is a great way to create excitement and build your online brand during your live event. You can choose a platform like YouTube, Facebook, Linkedin and Twitch are also popular live-streaming services. Or, you can choose to “simulcast,” or live-stream on various social channels at the same time, with a tool like or Vimeo. And don’t forget to promote your live event beforehand, so your community knows where to follow along in real-time (more on this below).
Once you’ve chosen the technology to support your live event, be sure to take several practice runs. Invite program managers to be judges, speakers, viewers and participants to test every aspect of your virtual event.
Ideas for Awards Ceremony event engagement
- Influencer involvement – Invite the influencers of your industry to your virtual awards gala to give a speech or present an award.
- Attendee participation – Make sure your attendees are engaged. You could break them into groups and place them in virtual breakout rooms, as mentioned above, to discuss a topic or listen to a particular speaker, or even do something fun and engaging with our exciting Virtual Activities we provide! Promote before your event to get maximum attendee participation, and provide information and an agenda on each session/breakout room in advance so your attendees can decide which sessions to participate.
- Participant networking – Virtual events provide opportunities for interested participants to connect via chat or exchange contact information with other participants for future collaborations.
- Live-stream engagement – If you live-stream your event, your viewers can submit questions or comments. Be sure to let them know that comments and emojis are welcome.
- Involve the winners – Consider notifying your finalists before the live event, and let them know how to accept the award live during the event. This can be done through a virtual conferencing tool like the ones mentioned above. It can also be as simple as a recorded, live-streamed Facetime call! If you have all the finalists waiting for the winner announcements, it will create an environment much like a real event, with added suspense perfect for live viewers and participants!
Include your Sponsors
Including your sponsors or partners is a great idea! In some cases, just because your event is now virtual doesn’t mean you can’t include your sponsors or partners. It’s important to include them in the event and provide value for them. Here are some ideas:
- Provide sponsor visibility. In Award Force, you can provide high visibility sponsor placements in content blocks on the Gallery, which you can screenshare during the event. The event apps mentioned above can also provide sponsor placements and features.
- Offer sponsors access to your awards gala virtual attendees. Provide avenues for your sponsors to offer their product or services via email or messaging during the live event.
- Invite sponsor participation in the event. Maybe it’s an award announcement, maybe it’s a product or service announcement to highlight their organization or they can sponsor a Virtual Event Activity during event.
Promoting your Virtual event
Now that you’ve planned your virtual awards gala and chosen the technology to support it, it’s time to promote! This is especially important if you want viewers for a live, virtual or live-streamed event. Our Hybrid Event Productions also are the perfect environment to showcase your Awards Ceremony combining both onsite location and live feeds from other attendees logging in remotely.
Much of the promotion will be the same as before. You’ll need to send invitations, set ticket costs (if it’s a paid event), and showcase your sponsors and judges. Be sure to send out multiple reminders about the upcoming event, especially one week, one day, and even one hour before the event.
Let your participants know what to expect. If you have guest speakers, be sure to promote them in advance and let them know exactly what time they will speak. Provide all the information and technology requirements your participants need.
For more information on how we can take your Virtual Event to the next level with an Awards show, please contact us for more information and to schedule a consultation.